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Gardening

Did born a flower in purple hue
that stole a tint from the fiery red
and bit of dew from the moist blue

Lone Beauty in Purple - Chrysanthemum

What a time of the year and season it is! Purple flowers, purple petals, purple blurs, purple sharps, purple purple. This world seems to have come alive in shades of purple, lavender, lilac, pale pink, magenta and more.

Nature has blessed us with lavenders, chrysanthemums, pansies, phlox, violets, asters, jacarandas and so many crazy permutations and combinations of purple on earth that laugh and breathe. Look in your garden, take a walk down any lane, go window shopping or simply go to your kichen… the world is suddenly bursting with purple.

Such happiness comes in clusters - Purple Jacarandas

Think of that omnipresent brinjal, lascivious pomegranate, clusters of jacaranda, window dressed mannequins, artworks, billboards, flora, books, to even food, this color is omnipresent. What a season this is…. pleasurably purple.

Another bunch of happiness with a funny name - Blue Billy Goat Weed

This is one color I have seldom used in my life, wardrobe and palatte. But now things are seemingly different for there is so much purple in the malls, on walls and wherever your eyes fall.

Purple, the color of good judgment, higher consciousness, spirituality, royalty, mysticism, sacredness, and divine energy, is no longer hard to miss or ignore.

After three weeks of colors, strokes and wings, The Wandering Mist Art Camp 2011, has come to an end. This update comes a tad too late as I am still reeling and assimilating this wonderful experience I had. I am exhausted, exhilarated, nostalgic and happy that everything went well. The biggest success of this camp is a lovely group of budding artists and art enthusiasts who will be painting or viewing art in a new light.

Dream it. Desire it. And that becomes your destiny.
Right from the germ of an idea of having a hands-on art camp, to its fruition with all the campers saying fond goodbyes, this has been one creative journey undertaken to teach, and we all ended up learning more.

From day one there has been a flurry of activity. The idea lived, breathed slept, woke-up with me. It had all the elements of inception, brains storming, feasibility, check lists, costing, marketing and what not. It never seemed like work. You are always on a high. It was a classic case of the more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

When you really enjoy your work, the less work it seems for your mind is active, thinking, imagining and trying your best to recreate it in reality. Like managing any project, it had to balance schedule, time, cost and effort, with no compromise on quality. But the pivotal element that made it all happen was the unconditional love and support of family and friends. Pity, they don’t teach that in Project Management classes ?

Developing good in-depth content, providing best art material and incorporating plenty of practice time into the schedule was the crux of the activity. I kept asking myself that if I were a student, what I would like it to be? What would really make me upbeat? Will it make me want to come to class every single day? It took a long time to figure that out in a structured manner. Quality is the element I never compromise upon. The group size was small enough for personal interaction and discussions, at all times.

The Art Camp Facility
Having envisioned a art camp facility that should be simple, comfortable, inspiring and eco-friendly, setting it up was the easiest part. From natural plants, handmade papers, hand-woven weed mats, recycled accents, and of course paintings & art books, the set up was ready in serene surroundings with abundant natural light and fresh air. The end product was inspiring enough for me to paint.

The Budding Artists Bond at the Fine Arts Camp
The camp participants were an interesting mix of adults, teens and kids. Each one was a different kind of a person – be it age, height, interest, attitude or level of exposure to paintings. Varied ideas, perspectives, attitudes and approach brought in a multitude of dimensions to the art camp. This beautiful give-and-take of three weeks kept us beaming, motivated, and gung-ho about creating. It always felt great to watch them mix colors, transfer and watch their intense concentration in everything.

Week One
The first week was focused on getting the basics right. Elements, design principles, colors theory, composition, perspective etc.. were the ruling topics. From steadying their shaky hands with pages and pages of drawing lines with pencil and brushes, sketching, shading to the importance to colors and textures in perspective, I guess the first week seemed the longest one.

Week One – Basics of Painting – Theory and Practice

But nevertheless, a painting was created everyday incorporating the lessons learnt along the way.

Week Two
Second week started with full painting compositions with instruction and tutorials. Having spent a week with water colors, their graduation to acrylics was enthusiastic with brighter colors, bigger palette, et al. In spite of the aprons, they ruined their clothes. And so did I.

Week Two – Exploring painting styles, movements, and more

This bunch of eager and enthusiastic painters created paintings every day, in a structured manner. By making mistakes and realizing them, they learnt their lessons better. On the other hand it were those gross errors that made their artworks unusual and beautiful, which I love and cherish the most.

Week Three
Third week saw them paint every day, but with better command over their works, media and presentation. I saw them planning, composing and creating their paintings on their own, with minimal intervention. It’s a delight to watch each creation come alive. The subject was the same but each ones individual approach to it makes it so much colorful in content and presentation.

They were free to choose the elements, composition, colors, expression, brush work, etc. Having spent most of the days working on paper, they graduated to canvas panels with good results.

Week Three – Exploring, Creating and Expressing – Independantly

Though there was one model to emulate, each one came up with a different looking painting. Each painting had a stamp of the budding artist who decided what it should look like, what elements to include and exclude. Each person’s brush work was unique.

It was here that I could really see them use the basics right. They mixed their own colors to get the shade they were looking for, applied design and composition principles. And most importantly, when they made a mistake or could not proceed with the model, they took their own flight of fancy, modified the concept with what seemed right… and came up with a painting that was truly theirs. That was the day I would call it the success of my art camp.

Teach! And you shall Learn
Along with memories of this art camp, I am left with some good lessons for life. Be it about loving what you do, risk taking, preparing for the worst, or simply managing, it was a great opportunity to learn it in action.

It is indeed true that you really learn when you teach. Every single person had opened within me a new dimension of thought and approach. With their learning, I have learnt too. Even their mistakes were so beautiful that I was always left with a pleasant after-thought.

The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.
Time flew faster than time. It was hard for all of us to believe the camp came to an end. It was a sudden realization and all of us wished that it had not ended so soon. But like all good things, this too came to an end… but with a promise of a better experience next time.

We all got-together with our family and friends to celebrate our last day. Certificate of completion were awarded, all students displayed their works to an art loving audience, happy conversations between home-made hors-de-vours, recollecting happy-sad memoirs and more ensued throughout the evening. Like a ritual, all participants left their hand prints behind in their favorite colors.

The lovely evening ended. The art campers bid adieu. But these lovely memories stay on. I could not be more happy and to share this.

Yes, it was and still is tiring. An experience, one-of-its-kind for me, is taking a long time to sink in. It is time for me to lay low for I have absorbed a lot of thought and colour. It is about time that I see what I make of myself with this wonderful experience I am having. So I take a break. And be back in a better avatar.

For those who want to get into this camp, buddy, you have to wait for your next vacation.

Boring desktop wallpapers can sometimes lead to great discoveries. My inadvertent search for some radical desktop wallpapers, just so to spruce up my desktop and help minimise my creative mental blocks (whenever I startup my system for work), led me to Jean-Marc Janiaczyk.

I came across a stunning landscape oil painting in impasto technique depicting flower fields, barn and misty mountains. That was a classic case of color shock. For someone who sticks to sober colors, Jean-Marc’s verdant, bright, bold, sun filled colors set me back by a breath or two.

A self taught artist from Douai, Jean Marc has been painting for more than 20 years. Deeply inspiredd by the lovely towns of Provence and its sunny landscapes, his colorful renditions in thick impasto, are truly a delight to wander in.

Sunflower Path – An oil painting by Jean-Marc Janiaczyk

From his simple stroke sunflower fields, to strikingly red flower beds, there are abundant of flowers in almost all his paintings. His paintings are dazzling. His works are fit to shock you…. into believing how stunning nature is. And that the essence of this vibrant nature can indeed be translated into a painting.

You can’t help but admire his control over the palette knife and measure. Jean-Marc Janiaczyk is one of the gifted landscape artists with finest of knife work that distinguishes a twig from a trunk in the simplest manner. Simple strokes in all directions and lo behold, there is a stunning landscapes for all to see.

The distant blue hills against azure skies, hinting snow-laden peaks, the dazzling flora in the brightest of colors, the sun-kissed fields, are any landscape impressionist’s dream. There are pathways, ponds, fountains, trees, flowers, fields, barns, that tickle your senses. Most of his paintings are dominated by nature and flora, married to civilized life. The little huts and barns repeat themselves in his collection. His paintings leave us with a sense of nostalgia, as if our childhood was spent in the sunny Provence.

There is much light, vibrancy, happiness and joy in each work that I had to write to him and he has been kind enough to share his inspiration and works.

“I just captured the heat of the sun on my paintings.” Jean-Marc Janiaczyk

There is no way one can pinpoint one favorite painting from his collections. Each one has its own story to tell. Each one looks happily contained in in its own world.

You cannot admire his works by glancing over the thumbnails. Each one needs to be mulled over. So grab your favorite beverage, get seated comfortably, clear out your mind and witness his creations. Please click on the image below to visit Jean-Marc Janiaczyk’s online gallery of painting.

What makes you paint? Is it because you took to the brush when you were a kid? Did you see a masterpiece so magnificent that you took to the brush like no tomorrow? Why did you not do something else? Why did we choose to paint over many other options available to express? How do people end up painting, in life? Or is it just the one side dominance of brain?

I am not talking science here. The science of art is neither my area of interest nor my cup of tea, at the moment. There are artists who stress upon how methodical and scientific art is. I may climb to that realm, later in life.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream
Vincent van Gogh

What I am more interested now is how art makes you the person that you are – when you paint or when you admire art. I want to know how art starts to speak from within… how art expresses the deep core…. how art translates the messages…. how art works when words fail… and a lot more – for art was when languages were naught. And even today, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Then, is art an urge to express? Is it our failure to master other forms of expression that art gives us the refuge and medium we seek?

Do we artists reject the nuances of language, grammar and words, to express? Do artists want unbridled freedom in expressing and questioning? Do artists want to do something that was never made before? Is this the way we like to be spent? Does making artwork undo the artist? Is art a part of unlearning to enlighten? Does art make us understand the elements better? Does art makes everything simple?

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting
Vincent van Gogh

There are a multitude of emotions that an artist goes through when creating a painting or a sculpture. The joy of seeing ones vision translate with hands, the despair of a wrong brush stroke, the anxiety of using a new color, the confidence of a repeated brushstroke, the tension of a measured stroke, the strain of fine brush work, the stressful judgment of seeing the big picture, the want to create a balance, the stray hair of the brush on canvas, the pace of emotions within, and a lot more….

Art is artist painted.
To paint is to show a bit of your soul. Where words fail, colors and strokes convey. Deep seated sub conscious comes to life. It is a way of connecting with your inner self. And more often than not, we remain surprised with what we see.

Like Jerry Fresia said, “we make a mark on the canvas and when we look back, we see something that seemingly was not there a moment ago. And there is that miracle: by virtue of making marks, we have created ourselves a tiny bit more – and we actually can see more, feel more, because we have become more, by that tiny bit”.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher

Sometimes we know what to paint and we begin with it. But as time and colors go by, the outcome is totally different as planned. Sometimes we don’t know what the painting is going to be but start painting anyway… and the outcome is something you had always imagined.

Each painting has its own way of evolving…When the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself.
William Baziotes

It is true that once the painting is complete, no matter how much you love it, it is outside of you. All that you held within for that artwork is right in front of your eyes. The entire emotional journey undertaken is right in front of you. A certain part of you has come onto the painting and remains there. Like a child who is born unto you, but is an individual by itself.

It’s not your painting anymore. It stopped being your painting the moment that you finished it.Jeff Melvoin

Art. Love. Truth.
The colors to use, the shades to restrain, and the strokes to play with… are what defines the art and his artwork. These, over a period of time become unique to the artist and can never be replicated. If replicated, it remains without soul.

Every artwork created with labour and love, speaks to the person who is meant for it. There are many mass produced paintings, which no matter how beautiful and striking to look at, do not strike a chord anywhere. Try it yourself.

Art that gets produced on a fixed time scale, according to me, is never art. There has to be enough movement of soul for something to be produced. Art cannot be mass produced… until unless lunacy rules.

There are times when a blank canvas can stare at you for a long time and nothing seems to move. The blank canvas remains for a long time to come. And then there are those days when many canvases get consumed in few moments. There is no fixed schedule or timetable to create art.

Body suffers, soul celebrates.
To paint is to converse with oneself. I tried to study almond blossoms by Vincent Van Gogh to understand the whys and why not’s of art. As we match his paintings to his life history and the times at which each painting was created, one can sense an immense sense of escape and pleasure of life while at work. Even during his depressing days, the art works seemed to celebrate life. While painting, we live a life within which is much different from what we live outwardly.

Journey of the artists’ artPainting is just another way of keeping a diary.
Pablo Picasso

As time goes by, painting chronicles our life. Like a journal – diary, we can see the ups and downs of life and the artists impressions. Of the images that lived within, the medium of expression, the sleight of hand, the madness of work, the evolution of subjects and objects of interest and the things that they always wanted to convey. Like a painter/ author once wrote: “painting is my predilection, my way or tool to evolve, to “know”.

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, there I am. There’s nothing behind it.
Andy Warhol

When I look back at my drawings and paintings, I see a person so far and distant – that was once me. Now, the style, subject, composition, and fervour have evolved. Should this be called the growth or evolution of the person or the artist? I don’t know. But change is there, well chronicled on the chosen medium of communication – called art. And if someone wants to learn a bit more about the artist, study his art work from the beginning.

Art is not off-the-shelf product.
There are some paintings which grow on me after a long time. And this is not because I got used to seeing them.

Once finished and not satisfied with the outcome, I leave it to settle down so that I can come back to it with a better frame of mind and see it in different light or make corrections to it. But more often than not, I end up liking them the way they are – perfectly hung on a perfect wall to dry. They seem to be so much in place and peace that I don’t touch or re-touch them.

It makes me wonder if this is true of the buyers too. Shouldn’t the art lovers be spending enough time with the artwork to decide if it is meant for them?

And when someone does like the artwork so much to buy it, after spending some time with it…. does means a lot to the artist… that the art-lover has experienced something with the creation.

When art gives you hidden lessons or mixed messages, it works. Art that tugs your heart has always been the one that never portrayed the obvious. There is no fun in painting the things what you see around the way they are – within the confined dimensions of space-time. Art is about tasting with your eyes.

I am unable to make any distinction between the feeling I get from life and the way I translate that feeling into painting.
Henri Matisse

It is when the artist’s vision or imagination extends/ stretches these constraints that his art starts to talk to you. And then makes you feel comfortable or disturbed. Either way, it has spoken to you.

Thoughts on art… to be continued
From healing, struggling, binding to liberating… there are so many facets of art. I would love to hear what my dear artists and creative souls think about it or feel within. I keep thinking about it and would like to know your thoughts.

An old saying goes that when you need comfort, hug your mother… for her heartbeat is the most comforting sound that nature has custom-designed – only for you. It is something we have grown up listening to.

But somewhere down the line, we lost touch with all that was simple, real and pure. We search all over the world to find what gives us peace. But what we long for at the end of the day is a simple feeling pure, an expression of life and love… and this is something similar to what I found, by chance, in Rokia Traore’s performance at TED.

Soul stirring vocals, nascent strings and moody blues make this video not only watchable but makes me want to paint. I dont know when, but I will.

Rokia Traore’s performance did make me go numb and throbbing at the same time. Her voice, her aura, the music and all the colors around her, did make it seem very ethereal. Feels like a jazz performance but more soulful and more goose-bumpy.

The guitar strings and the traditional instrument merge together to create a unique kind of music. Marrying the old with the new – her musical fusion is exquisite and something what we keep searching for.

Yes, I am so much inspiredd to paint the whole song. Or perhaps her. Her soul. I dont know. I rarely paint with music but this one urges me to try. Please click below to watch one of her song performance.

Rokia Traore sings the moving “M’Bifo,” accompanied on the n’goni, a lute-like Malian stringed instrument with a soulful timbre. A quietly mesmerizing performance.

Rokia is blessed with such a lovely face that her silhouette stands out beautiful in the blue purple light. I’d say a fauvist style painting of hers would be striking and deep. One soul painter who could do justice to Rokia Traore’s is Bruni Sablan – whose works I’d die for.

Rokia makes us feel Africa, the native african language, its sounds, sights and smells… sitting faraway. Like any blessed land full of strives, pain, loot and maraud… her voice sounds the angst of africa. I do not understand the lyrics but feel no need to know them. The pain is felt. The despair is sensed. The longing is shared.

Yes, love is beyond language.

I hear it as I write this. Oh! how can it not touch your soul.

PS: The comments are closed for this post as I am getting too much spam here. If you have something to say, please leave your comments on any other page on WanderingMist and I will get back to you.